What to Do About Succulent Leggy Growth in Summer? Practical Solutions Shared
What is succulent leggy growth? Put it this way: what does a succulent need to look like to be cute? Of course, it's cute when it grows thick stems and plump, fleshy leaves! Ideally, it should grow as round and chubby as a little piggy - that's what perfection looks like! And leggy growth is growing in the opposite direction - the stems shoot up like crazy, the leaves are thin and elongated, and the distance between the leaves is stretched wide, making it look sparse and straggly.
Succulents aren't napa cabbage - once they get leggy, they're no longer cute. And summer is a time when succulent leggy growth is very easy to see. Why does this happen? There are mainly these causes of succulent leggy growth. The first is shading, because summer sunlight is intense, so most succulent growers invariably shade their succulents.
It's worth affirming that letting succulents bake in the sun in summer is absolutely out of the question, but you need to pay attention to the degree of shading - this must be controlled well. It doesn't mean shading equals complete shading. Complete shading or excessive shading is undoubtedly bad for succulent growth. Actually, in summer succulents can still be placed on the balcony - just pull up a shade net, and a shading rate of about 50% is appropriate.
Insufficient light is a major cause of succulent leggy growth, especially for those succulents moved indoors. If you find your succulent getting leggy, it means the current sunlight is insufficient, and you can appropriately increase the amount of sunlight to let the succulent gradually return to a normal growth state. And the second cause is watering. Summer is hot, and it's very easy to overwater.
Overwatering in summer first easily causes succulent black rot, and those that are very lucky not to get black rot become leggy instead. If it's not due to lack of light, then it's very likely due to too much water, and the amount of watering afterward should be controlled. Otherwise, leggy growth is only a minor issue - in serious cases, it could even lead to black rot!
The third cause may be overfertilizing. Actually, summer is not suitable for fertilizing succulents, because summer is the dormant period for succulents, and their demand for water and nutrients is at an all-time low. If you give them too much water and nutrients, not only is it not beneficial to their growth, but it only adds burden.
And among these, excessive nitrogen fertilizer is the most likely to cause leggy stems and leaves in succulents. Nitrogen fertilizer promotes the growth of stems and leaves, but for succulents, they don't need too much nitrogen fertilizer, because their stems and leaves don't need to grow like crazy - what they need is for the stems to grow sturdy and the leaves to grow plump and thick. That's the correct way to open a standard succulent!